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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23036668">Burning Wick</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss'>Jevil_Joss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>About as Dark as V3 gets, Established Relationship, F/M, RWBY Uncommon Ships, V3 spoilers, like a lot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:28:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,013</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23036668</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything burned. Including the fires of hope.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ruby Rose/Roman Torchwick</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Uncommon RWBY Ships</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Burning Wick</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This work is more or less a sequel to the fic that I just titled "Rosewick". Reading it is not necessary to read this one, but it was also pretty good.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Roman leaned over the computer, his scroll beeped. He looked at the picture of Ruby fucking Rose, with the text sent by Neo simply being, <em>Guess who?</em></p><p>"Gods damn it," he muttered, standing up and striding up to the top. Just for once, could she just not get involved? Could she leave Roman alone?</p><p>Could she not make his job any harder than it had to be?</p><p>Armed robbery, he could do. Mild crimes, he could do. He could rob. He could threaten. </p><p>But even he was having troubles with this. This senseless violence. His cane tapped against metal as he strode onto the roof. "You really like getting involved, don't you, Red?" he snapped, taking off his hat and dusting it off. </p><p>"Roman," she said, "you need to stop this."</p><p>Roman raised an eyebrow at Neo, who shrugged back at him. "Red, you really can't stop her. The person who hired me...and the person who hired her...you can't stop them. You will never be able to stop them."</p><p>"Yes I can."</p><p>"No. You really can't." Roman put his hat back on, straightened it, and sighed. "I've seen what she's capable of. What she can do. Cinder is the least of the bad that's coming."</p><p>"Then we'll stop her first."</p><p>Roman blinked. "Red, you <em>can't.</em>" </p><p>"Can."</p><p>"Aaaaaaaaaaa...." Roman groaned as he turned around, rubbing his face. "What am I gonna do with you?"</p><p>"Join me."</p><p>Roman looked at her. "You haven't drawn your weapon," he realized. </p><p>"Don't need it."</p><p>Roman growled in a way that wasn't as menacing as he'd intended. "You don't need it?"</p><p>She flinched, taking a step back. But she stepped forward, standing firm, glaring down at him. "Roman. I just watched one of my best friends rip my other best friend to pieces. I don't want to lose you too."</p><p>"But we aren't a--"</p><p>"Yes we are," Ruby said. Tears slowly crawled down her face. She clenched her hands into fists. "I know you feel the same way. So why? Why not join us? You don't like doing this. You know it's bad. So why?"</p><p>"Because we can't stop Salem," Roman said, pointing out to where Cinder stood. Hundreds of feet away, on another building. "We can't stop her. If we want to live, we need to join her and hope to stay on her good side."</p><p>Ruby gritted her teeth. "What point is living if you don't want the life?" she asked. </p><p>Roman sighed. "Why must you make me hope?"</p><p>"Because we always need to hope. Slacker."</p><p>Roman sighed again, deeper this time. "Alright. We need to get the Atlas drones back under Ironwood's con--" </p><p>Ruby pulled out her scythe, fear and anger appearing over her face. Roman stepped back as she lunged...past him, hitting the Griffon that had been about to kill him. The Grimm hurdled backwards, smashing through the window and hitting the control panel. Which exploded. </p><p>"That works," he muttered, straightening his coat. </p><p>"C'mon," Ruby said. "We've got work to do."</p><p> </p><p>Work that had ended poorly, Roman thought bitterly. Seeing Ruby unconscious in her bed, he glared down into the coffee he held in his hands. Neo put a hand on his shoulder, gave him a confident smile, and sat down with her own caffeinated drink. </p><p>"I'm a bit of a gambling man," Roman drawled, leaning back in his chair. "How long you bet she'll be out?"</p><p>Taiyang Xiao Long grimaced, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed. "No way to tell."</p><p>"Hmm." Roman had been hoping for something better. He sipped the coffee, the hot liquid stinging his throat. "Why are you letting me stay here?" he asked, deciding to push his luck. "I mean, after--"</p><p>"If Ruby woke up and I had to tell her, 'I murdered the only guy you've ever shown interest in', I would throw myself off a building," Taiyang interrupted, sipping his coffee. "Which is...about it, Torchwick. Quite simply, I despise you, and I wish my daughter had better tastes."</p><p>"Better tastes than you?" Roman asked, raising an eyebrow. Neo covered her mouth in mock surprise as Taiyang shot a confused glare Roman's way. "Took you two tries to get the perfect girl, right?"</p><p>Taiyang stiffly pointed one finger at Roman, saying simply, "Pushing your luck."</p><p>Roman shrugged. "My luck has to be lightweight, because I've been pushing it for years now." He sipped his coffee, eyes closed. He opened them again when he heard Taiyang laugh. "Funnier than I thought I was?" he asked. </p><p>Taiyang nodded slowly. "You've had better luck than I did, in any case," he said. To Roman's confusion, he added, "It only took you one try to get the perfect girl."</p><p>"Though she probably could have done better," Roman muttered. Neo elbowed him hard, causing him to wince. "Alright, alright, I'll have more faith in myself." Neo could be persistent and tricky, but subtlety was not her specialty. </p><p>Taiyang smiled at her. "So, who is she?"</p><p>"Adopted daughter," Roman replied. "Found her in an alley. Decided I could use another pair of hands." He affectionately ruffled Neo's hair. "Course, she's more than that now." She flipped her hair, with extra sass, as if to say, <em>I know.</em></p><p>Taiyang chuckled. "She knows it." His smile faded. Looking at Ruby, he said, "She's going to have a hard time when she wakes up."</p><p>"Yeah." Roman took another sip of his coffee, then added, "While not the luckiest with her choice of boyfriends, she's pretty lucky that she'll have so many supportive people around her when she wakes up." He nodded to Taiyang, then to the door to the rest of the house. "Her uncle, her half-sister, her father, her...friends." He didn't feel like saying 'the part of JNPR that I didn't have a hand in killing'. <em>I'd prefer to be in the list of people who greets her when she wakes up,</em> he thought, thinking back to Taiyang's threat.  </p><p>Seeing her sleeping form, he said, "We might want...to get comfortable. It looks like she's gonna sleep awhile."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I liked this being the end outcome of Rosewick. Perhaps if Roman had swapped sides early the Fall of Beacon might have been avoided. I'll probably end up doing a third of these at some point, but I also am definitely going to make a third Ashen Petals fic. If you have an idea for the name for the next one, based off the sort of poem theme I was doing, feel free to leave a comment! And if you have a request for another ship you'd like to see me write, also leave a comment!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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